Graham Alexander admits he expects interest in Stephen O’Donnell and it’s been the same since he arrived at Motherwell.
There has been constant speculation surrounding the Scotland international’s future since Alexander was appointed ‘Well boss in January.
Sunderland are the latest club to be linked to O’Donnell with reports in England suggesting the League One side are preparing a £500,000 offer.
The Bellshill man signed a new two-year contract last season and Alexander remains relaxed about the situation - insisting it’s natural for good players to attract interest.
“I feel like I’ve gone back to January,” laughed Alexander. “When there was speculation about him, then the start of the summer and the start of pre-season.
“Good players always attract attention. I expect his name to be linked and thrown around while the window is open, as will happen with other players, I expect.
“But what I see from Stephen O’Donnell is a lad who is dedicated to his job and to his club.
"He trains like he wants to be here, he plays like he wants to be here and he acts like he wants to be here.
“As far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t change and I’m happy with how it goes - the day when we don’t have any interest in our players, I’ll be worried.”
Alexander is still targeting more signings and the 49-year-old admits his recruitment process looks at players outside of the UK.
Motherwell recently added Finland international Juhani Ojala and while Alexander accepts possible incomings could be linked to English clubs, he is also exploring different markets.
He added: “It’s that [waiting on developments in English market] but it’s also the Scottish market. As you can see with some of our signings, we are outside the UK market.
“English clubs start later than us so there are timing issues. Also in Scotland, some players will wait until the end of pre-season and realise that they aren’t first choice at their clubs.
“That might push people so sometimes it is a waiting game and you need to be ready to pounce on any opportunity that comes about.
“It’s not just the English market that we are looking at. We’ve brought in Ojala from Finland and he’s obviously been around Europe.
“We’ve got an open mind and we’re scouring everywhere that we think that we can entice players from.
“We will see what happens in the next month or so.”
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